A surprise win over the Aussies

The story of an off-spinner who came from nowhere, got India an impossible victory, and promptly returned back into the shadows, is unbelievable but true.

The powerful Australians, led by an astute captain, Richie Benaud, were touring India in 1959-60. Their previous tour in 1956 had been a successful one and that was when they were not at their best having lost to England and a Test to the newcomers, Pakistan.

But this time, they were coming as the best side in the world having beaten South Africa, England and Pakistan. With Davidson, Meckiff, Rorke, Lindwall, Benaud and Kline, backed by Ken Mackay, they had a bowling balance for all type of conditions and in McDonald, Favell, Harvey, O’Neill and Burge, they had class batsmen with Grout and Jarman as the glove-men.

The Indians had all kinds of problems – beaten by the West Indies at home and thrashed by England, away; the intrigues of the BCCI, the divided selection committee and demoralized players, meant that the Indians were likely to be whipping boys yet again and when Australia won the first Test at Delhi by an innings and 127 runs on the fourth day (Benaud 8-76), the writing was on the wall.

To compound Indian woes, Vijay Manjrekar, who was one of the few to have withstood the pace of the England fast bowlers in England, was out with a knee injury.

The second Test at Green Park, Kanpur was expected, yet again to be a cake walk for the Australians.

The selectors had sprung a surprise in recalling the little known Gujarat off-spinner Jasu Patel for the Test – the Australians those days were supposed to be vulnerable to off-spinners, following Jim Laker’s 19-wicket haul against them. Patel had been playing first class cricket since 1943-44 and had made his debut against Pakistan at Karachi in 1955. The chairman of selectors, Lala Amarnath, had been the manager of the Indian team on that tour and he is believed to have played a leading role in ensuring Patel’s inclusion in the team.

India’s captain, G S Ramchand, won the toss and batted. Yet again the Indians found the Davidson–Benaud combine difficult to handle. No one got to 30, young Bapu Nadkarni top scoring with 25. Davidson (5-31) and Benaud (4-63) bowled India out for a paltry 152.

Australia started well through McDonald and Gavin Stevens and put on 71 when Stevens became Patel’s first victim. Neil Harvey and McDonald put on 52 when McDonald fell to Patel. It is said that Lala Amarnath was the one who had sent a message to Ramchand to change Patel’s end and once that was complied with, Patel started creating problems as there was something for the off-spinner in the pitch. Be that as it may, the move proved to be a master stroke as Patel became almost as impossible for the Aussies to handle as Laker had been. McDonald, Stevens, Harvey, Mackay, Davidson, Benaud, Jarman, Kline and Rorke all fell to Patel and he ended Australia’s innings at 219, finishing with 9-69.

India now had come back into the Test as the wicket was responsive to spin and the Australians would have to bat last.

The confidence restored the Indians and they batted more freely the second time around and through Nari Contractor (74), Ramnath Kenny (51), Bapu Nadkarni (46) and Borde (44) ended up with a decent 291. Alan Davidson, at times bowling slow cutters, was yet again outstanding with figures of 57.3 – 23 – 93 -7.

Set to score 224 to win, the Aussies just never got going once Patel and Umrigar (bowling off-spin) were introduced after six overs with the new ball. Patel (5-55) and Umrigar (4-27) bundled Austraila out for 105 and India had won by 119 to square the series. It was Richie Benaud’s first Test loss as a captain and though he went onto win the series 2-1, it would have been less than the Australians would have expected.

Jasu Patel played again at Calcutta but didn’t create much of an impression in a drawn game taking 3-104 and 0-15. This proved to be the last of his seven Tests in which he took a total of 29 wickets i.e. 15 came in six Tests whilst just the one at Kanpur got him a haul of 14. For the feat at Kanpur, he was awarded the 'Padmashri. Patel continued playing for Gujarat till the 1961-62 season and retired with a bag of 248 wickets in 63 matches. He bowled with a jerky, suspect action and in today’s world would have been subjected to a detailed bio-mechanical analysis but those days a large number of bowlers with suspect actions prevailed. Ian Meckiff, who opened Australia's bowling in this series, was one.

Despite the fact that Patel didn’t have a very distinguished career, nothing can take away from his contribution to an unexpected victory which changed the mood in the Indian camp and gave them the confidence to draw two of the remaining three Tests and restrict the mighty Australians to 2-1 in the series.

Jasu Patel died aged 68.